Impact of Education on POCUS Adoption and Sustainability in Kenya: Preliminary Findings from Scaled Maternal Health POCUS Implementation

In 2022, the largest-ever deployment paired with training of hand-held ultrasound was conducted in Kenya. 514 practitioners recruited from 224 public facilities across 8 Kenyan counties with the highest identified mortality were trained in basic OB POCUS to identify fetal presentation, # gestations, fetal cardiac activity, placental location and amniotic fluid assessment. Preliminary findings from this large scale deployment suggests that handheld ultrasound devices when paired with training results in a high level of device utilization with immediate integration into ANC work-flows and identification of high-risk conditions. Impact evaluation on how this integration of POCUS at ANC point-of-care shapes referral of critical prenatal conditions, and affects outcomes at the patient, health care provider and system level is ongoing.